(June 30, 2004)
I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Revelation 2:9 (NIV)
Who are they who say they are Jews but are not?
Was Jesus and His following, the original Christians, a sect of the Jews?
Jesus taught in the synagogues and in the temple to Jews and was himself a Jew. His apostles were all Jews. He observed the same Holy days and Sabbath that the Jews observed. He read from the same Torah that the Jews read from.
If the original Christians were a sect of the Jews, are we not also to consider ourselves a sect of the Jews?
Yet, in God's church today, we are not all Jews. As a matter of fact few are Jews. Many are Israelites and many are strangers or foreigners or immigrants or natives or indigenous or converts.
So are those who belong to God s church the ones who are calling themselves Jews but are not. Who else on the face of the earth are calling themselves Jews?
Then there is the possibility that a true Jew is a religious Jew or rather one who adheres to true religion irrespective of his or her roots. In this case perhaps the Jews are not true Jews because they don t adhere to true religion.
A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man s praise is not from men, but from God. Romans 2:28-29 (NIV)
So we are to consider ourselves Jews who are circumcised of the heart, according to the New Testament scriptures.
For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20
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